Liberalism in East Asia – Lessons on Development from Hong Kong and Singapore – Dr. Bryan Cheang

Video

In this talk, using the cases of Singapore and Hong Kong, Bryan Cheang speaks about the limits of aggregate statistics and the importance of contextual knowledge and cultural understanding, when assessing national economic performance.

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Videos

Video

New Video Recording: Stateless Commerce: A Lecture by Barak Richman

In this talk, Barak Richman will describe what is known about stateless commercial networks, how to understand them within the context of modernity, and what limits they reveal about the modern state.  He will then explore new questions about how stateless networks and their host polities adapt, co-evolve, and suffer decline.

Video

New Video Recording: A Golden Age of Barbarians? A Lecture by James C. Scott

In this lecture, James C. Scott challenges dominant historical narratives about non-state populations. He argues that by dominating trade routes, extracting tribute, and providing the connective tissue between large population centers, “barbarian” life was in general freer, more leisurely, healthier, and, contra Hobbes, less violent than life in the centers of civilization.